"In this book, Victoria Aarons and Alan L. Berger summon their readers to a testimony concerning a matter of profound ethical urgency. With their characteristic insight and acumen, they sound the depths of the relationships between representation and memory, trauma and tradition, and human history and human sanctity. These relationships unfold in their deft analysis of a rising body of literary texts that cry out for our engagement. The authors have responded to that outcry, not only as deeply insightful scholars but also as deeply devoted witnesses." —David Patterson, author of Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins
"This thorough analysis of the evolving third-generation wave of literary preoccupation attests to the indelible impact of the Jewish tragedy on the post-Holocaust psyche. Written with great clarity, this book illuminates the haunting sense of loss and terror that impels an imaginative return to the tragic past in search for the irrecoverable story. Aarons and Berger have made an important contribution to the study of cultural responses to the Holocaust." —Rachel F. Brenner, author of The Ethics of Witnessing: The Holocaust in Polish Writers' Diaries from Warsaw, 1939—1945
"The authors address a number of questions: How are those of the third generation affected by the memories they have inherited? How can they present a world that existed in the past, one they never experienced? To what extent is the new generation of Holocaust writers struck by this tragic past? Are these questions relevant to issues such as present-day assimilation attempts? Aarons and Berger offer a convincing and deeply moving analysis of these and a number of other questions. These third-generation texts provide deep insight into a world the authors never saw or experienced and offer new ways of giving a voice to those who were brutally murdered in the Holocaust. Recommended." —CHOICE